Death Cab For Cutie’s current tour might be millennial nostalgia at its finest, and it brings along another indie icon: The Postal Service and their only album, Give Up. Both bands are fronted by lead singer and songwriter Ben Gibbard; the tour’s stop at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie on Sunday, Oct. 1 will present both incredible albums played in their entirety.
Transatlanticism, Death Cab’s defining album and most beloved among fans, came at a time when indie rock was starting to become cool. And the record was a true indie output. But it would ultimately be their last with the label Barsuk Records before signing with Atlantic in the aftermath of the album’s tremendous success.
“I think it surprised everybody, kind of, you know?” Harmer says over the phone. “The connection that it ended up having and then certainly as time has gone on, the life that it's had.”
Many fans revere the record as a defining moment in their youth, and connect with Gibbard’s intimate and honest songwriting, with appreciation for its greater sonic clarity than previous Death Cab albums. Harmer, who plays bass in the band, says it’s humbling to see that the things he loves and connects with from the album have also stayed with fans two decades later.
“I've always really connected to the emotional openness of the songwriting. Certainly the lyrics,” Harmer says. “I think Ben went to a real place inside himself when he was writing these songs. And I've always felt like there's a real, tangible sense of place and space in them.”
Harmer and Gibbard are the only remaining original band members of Death Cab For Cutie, with their relationship going back decades into their college years. The band released its first album in 1997 with You Can Play These Songs With Chords. As to how the two friends have remained close and able to continue working together all these years, Harmer says it comes down to communication.
“We've just always been able to kind of shoot each other straight and be there for each other in good times and bad,” he says.
He’s also in awe of Gibbard’s songwriting skills. The Postal Service, which is one half Gibbard and the other half musician and producer Jimmy Tamborello, otherwise known as Dntel, released the indie pop darling Give Up eight months prior to Transatlanticism.
“We've just always been able to kind of shoot each other straight and be there for each other in good times and bad." – Nick Harmer
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“I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003,” Gibbard shared in a statement when this year’s tour was first announced. “The Postal Service record came out; Transatlanticism came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.”
Harmer agrees that Gibbard cranked out some of his creative best that year.
“I can't think of another songwriter in our generation, certainly in my lifetime, that has made two albums that have come out in the same year that have both gone on to sort of really connect with so many people in this real way,” he says.
Harmer also credits the band’s drummer, Jason McGerr, for a lot of the success with the album, and also the success as a band moving forward.
“Jason joined the band right before we made Transatlanticism, and I think him coming into the band was a very significant moment for us because it really galvanized our lineup and really sort of solidified the kind of chemical reaction that needs to happen in a band,” he says. “Jason was really an important part of that kind of final piece for us to really find ourselves in a place where we could make the creative decisions that we needed to make and really push ourselves with Transatlanticism.”
With the unique setlist, there are a couple of songs that Death Cab For Cutie have only rarely played live before now, including "Death of an Interior Decorator" and, surprisingly, the beautiful acoustic ballad "A Lack of Color."
As for his favorites to play so far, Harmer says the album’s title track takes the win, along with s the declarative opener "The New Year."
“Playing [the song] “Transatlanticism” is a real moment for all of us," he says. "And, you know, we can really feel it also connect with the crowd, too. And there's just a nice shared moment there that’s really powerful.”
